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Energy Conservation is the First Step by Mike Barber, Seattle P-I Reporter Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 16, 2001

Using less power now not only saves money
but puts off the need to build more generating capacity

At the Washington Mutual Tower in downtown Seattle, tenants arriving recently for work passed a small phalanx of printers, computer monitors, clock radios and other electrical equipment lined up in the lobby. They were invited to take one of the 1,500 little boxes of fruit juice being passed out, at the cost of receiving a gentle admonition:

"Turn it off, save some juice."

The tower, with 3,000 workers, has a larger population than many Washington towns.

"You can see the magnitude" of leaving little electrical things on overnight or on weekends, said Carol Thomas of Wright Runstad & Co., the building's general manager.

The energy conservation campaign is one of many signs of adjustment as electricity consumers, big and small, struggle for some control in a West Coast energy crisis. Everyone from homeowners to corporate executives seems to agree that by sacrificing some energy dependence, they can help hold the line against shocking utility bills.

"It's really about forming new habits," said Thomas, who shared her energy-saving ideas recently with an overflow crowd of 500 people attending a Building Owners and Managers Association conservation summit in Seattle.

"My view is, we should never go back to our old habits," Thomas said. "It is always going to cost more from here on out. We've been living on the cheap in the Northwest for some time, and people elsewhere have been warning us that our day will come, and we will be paying rates like the rest of the country," she said.

The day of reckoning is here.

"We now have to learn to manage what we have," Thomas said. "It's not the money we will save but the kilowatts that we will save for our region that is important."

Save a watt here, a kilowatt there, and Washington can avoid the kind of blackouts California has seen, Thomas and others say.

So far, the call to conserve is working. In the first month of its conservation drive, Seattle has saved enough power to run two University of Washington campuses -- about the output of two of the city's small hydroelectric dams.

Instead of the 1,364 average megawatts projected for January, Seattle used an average of 1,298 megawatts, a drop reflecting more than twice the 30-megawatt output of Seattle City Light's Cedar Dam. If 1 megawatt now sells on average for $300 an hour, Seattle saved more than $475,000 a day, City Light officials said.

The decline, aided by an unusually warm winter, is only half the 10 percent goal set in the first week of January by Gov. Gary Locke and local governments and utilities. But overall, "the trend is good," City Light spokesman Dan Williams said. "It's beyond where we thought we'd be, though the first 5 percent may be easier than the second 5 percent."

The Northwest's flirtation with the dark side is caused in part by an unusual winter drought that has left the region's vaunted hydroelectric dams unable to deliver as much power as they otherwise could. At the same time, the cheap energy market once relied upon to make up the difference has been decimated by California's bungled venture into utility deregulation, which has driven prices shockingly high.

Generally, it takes about 1 megawatt to power about 1,000 homes. Seattle, according to regional utility figures, requires an average of 1,100 to 1,200 megawatts The most recent City Light figures show that of all 341,063 customers in 1999, 308,564 were residential.

It's hard to tell how much of Seattle's January reduction came from folks at home learning to forgo bright lights, long hot baths or blow-dryers, or from efficiencies wrung out by the commercial, industrial and government sectors.

While residential users account for most of City Light customers, the commercial, institutional and government sectors are the biggest power users, accounting for two-thirds of all use. City Light says its two biggest electric customers are Birmingham Steel's plant near West Seattle, at nearly 40 average megawatts, and the University of Washington, with 31-33 average megawatts.

Downtown buildings like the Washington Mutual Tower, Columbia Center and Bank of America tower, with their work-week populations of thousands and shops and latte stands, can use up to 7 or 8 megawatts, City Light officials say.

While businesses and institutions use the most power, they also are Seattle's conservation leaders. Between the start of City Light's conservation program in 1977 and through 1999, business and government sectors saved 3.27 million megawatt-hours out of the 5.27 million saved citywide.

City Light has been working for several years with Birmingham Steel and the UW to find more ways to save. The UW, for example, teamed with the utility to retrofit all campus buildings for energy efficiency, the largest energy management project in the City Light's history.

The UW, its campus steam-heated by a 5-megawatt, natural gas-powered turbine, has initiated a number of power-saving measures over the years, ranging from monitoring parking garage vent fans to putting library lights on strict schedules.

Yet with rising power costs in recent years, including a 225 percent increase alone in natural gas, the university still faces a projected utility budget deficit of $5.3 million for the 2001-2002 biennium, which starts in July, and a whopping $24.4 million for the 2003-2004 biennium, said Jerri McCray, UW assistant vice president for facility services.

"This is why conservation is so important here," McCray said. "We all really have to do our part -- we've got to be a little colder and not complain, because this is serious stuff."

In recent weeks, city landmarks such as the UW's Husky Stadium, the Space Needle, downtown office buildings and even the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's rooftop globe and eagle have drawn critical attention from passers-by for being lit at night. The globe, at least, has been shut off for the duration of the current power crisis.

Husky Stadium's lights, McCray said, are only functioning at a quarter of their power and are lit at night for intramural activities, and sometimes in the early morning for ROTC marching drills. The only option would be cutting the programs. Folks who complain often can't see onto the athletic field from street level.

"We would absolutely curtail activities" if Seattle's energy crisis even begins to approach California's, where rolling blackouts have been needed, she said.

The Downtown Seattle Association asked retailers and property owners in January to take a little luster off the city's nighttime skyline and turn off unnecessary lights.

"Usually when you see the lights on in buildings in the evening time, it's because people are working or for security purposes, and people live downtown," association marketing director Sylvia McDaniel said. "Some businesses have 24-hour shifts, others have janitorial services working there." Some now are enlisting the aid of overnight security guards and janitors to police the lights and switch them off, though not the equipment.

City government cut 24 percent of its power use in the Key Tower building in January, said City Councilwoman Heidi Wills, who is overseeing conservation efforts as chairwoman of the Energy and Environmental Committee. City Light saved 20 percent during the month at its building and switched off its signature sign to set an example.

Homeowners, meanwhile, are getting hit in the pocketbook, mainly over heating expenses. Heating generally accounts for 50 percent of a residential electric bill, water heating for 20 percent, said the Chelan County Public Utility District's "Little Things Mean a Watt" conservation program. Keeping food cold, cooking it, washing and drying clothes, lighting and running electronic devices such as computers or TVs use up the rest.

Seattle City Light says the cost of running a 30,000-watt electric furnace four hours a day over two months at current rates comes out to $557.

For every 1 percent of energy conserved, cities can save about $100,000; bump that to 10 percent and simple math equals $1 million, a nice chunk, Tacoma Power spokeswoman Sue Veseth said.

Tacoma Power is running one of the most aggressive campaigns focused on conservation on the home front, holding what might be considered "dark watches" -- the energy equivalent of neighborhood crime watch meetings. Tacoma Power representatives provide conservation kits and even the treats for folks who host conservation workshops and invite neighbors, family and friends.

And people are responding, Veseth said. People don't like the higher bills and sacrifices they have to make, "but there has been a change from the initial anger about rates," she said.

"People have seen the dry reservoirs and they know conservation is necessary."

CONSERVATION TIPS

AT HOME

• Lower thermostats to 55 degrees at night and when no one is home, and never go higher than 68 degrees. Use programmable thermostats for automatic changes.

• Wear sweaters or layers of clothes indoors.

• Open south-facing blinds and drapes during the day to gather heat, clean south window glass for maximum exposure and cover all windows at night.

• Set water heaters to 120 degrees and turn them off when going on vacation. Wrap heaters bought before 1992 with an insulated blanket. Inspect for leaks, use pipe insulation on hot-water pipes and on the first 3 feet of cold-water pipe connected to water heaters.

• Take short showers instead of baths, using low-flow shower heads. Fix faucet and toilet leaks.

• Shower with a partner. It can save as much as 50 percent in time, water and money, according to homejupiter.com, an online home improvement resource, so long as you don't get distracted.

• Aim to reduce water use by 1 percent a year for the next 10 years. Install a 1.6-gallon toilet -- those more than 10 years old use 3.5 to 5 gallons per flush.

• Strictly police lights switches and plugs, flicking them off when leaving rooms. Pay attention to hidden power drains such as that bedside electric clock. Use a battery-powered clock or a wind-up. Rethink priorities: Visible clocks or timers on VCRs, microwaves, computers and other appliances show they're still consuming energy, even when you're not using them. Consider unplugging them.

• Replace incandescent light with compact fluorescent lamps. Though more expensive than conventional bulbs, they only use one-fourth the power and last 10 times longer, and some are made with a less harsh light, resembling incandescent bulbs. Use bulbs with lower wattage. Where possible, use one large bulb rather than several smaller ones.

• Close off and don't heat unoccupied rooms.

• Arrange furniture, curtains and drapes so air flow from heat registers is not blocked.

• Test for heat leaks by holding a lit incense stick near openings like windows, doors, attics and other potential escapes. If smoke travels in any direction but up, a leak is present.

• Weather-strip, or use door sweeps around doors, windows and anywhere a draft is felt. Fix or seal broken or cracked windows, especially in the basement.

• Check ceilings and crawl spaces to ensure adequate insulation; insulation blown into older homes may have settled over time. Patch or caulk holes in floors, ceilings and walls.

• Close off heat escapes like fireplace dampers when there's no fire, checking to make sure the seal is tight, and limit use of kitchen and bathroom fans. Install rubber insulation gaskets in outlets and switches.

• Fireplaces provide heat but also suck it off at great loss. Use glass doors and fan-powered heat exchanger that recirculates hot air back into the room.

• Have chimney, boiler, furnace and/or gas fireplace cleaned and serviced annually.

• Clean and repair all furnace and heat pump filters monthly. Inspect furnace fan-belt tension for forced-air efficiency, and vacuum blower area. Fix broken ducts and replace cracked or peeling tape.

• Set refrigerators between 37 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Vacuum or brush the cooling coils at least every six months, and check door gaskets. Allow hot food to cool before placing in refrigerator, but wait no more than 30 minutes to avoid contamination. Listen to the motor -- it shouldn't be running constantly.

• Maintain freezers below 10 degrees. Defrost freezer when ice or frost builds up a quarter inch or greater.

• Keep freezer well stocked; it takes more energy to cool them empty. If necessary, freeze water in old milk jugs.

• Run only full loads in dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, and use them after 10 p.m. or on weekends, when energy supply is greater and costs are lower. Handwashing uses more water than dishwashers, homejupiter.com says. Pre-rinse dishes in cold water, wash clothes only in cold water. Set dishwashers to air dry. Clean dryer lint traps before each load. Avoid overdrying; use moisture sensors on dryers. Line-dry clothes when you can.

• Use microwave and toaster ovens whenever possible for cooking or heating small portions. Cook more than one item at a time if you must use the oven.

• Use flat-bottomed cooking pans for best contact with the heat, with tight lids to keep steam in. Pressure cookers use much less energy than ordinary pots and pans.

• Use less water for cooking, using lowest possible heat to maintain boiling or steaming.

• Pre-heat ovens only five to eight minutes when baking; never when broiling or roasting. Self-cleaning ovens are insulated to retain heat, making them more energy-efficient, but use self-cleaning sparingly.

• Keep pools and spas covered and heat off or on low when not in use.

• Run garbage disposals only with cold water.

AT WORK

• Turn off computers, printers, copy machines, shredders and other office equipment when leaving for the day.

• Use task lighting at desks rather than overhead lights.

• Turn off lights in copy rooms, break rooms, storage rooms and restrooms.

• Set thermostats to 68 degrees during the day, 55 degrees at night and during non-business hours. Avoid using portable heaters; dress appropriately for cooler office temperatures.

• Keep after-hours lighting to a minimum for safety and security.

• Unplug any unnecessary lighting, radios, coffee pots and other equipment.

NEED TO KNOW MORE?

Seattle City Light, www.ci.seattle.wa.us/light or 206-684-3800.
Tacoma Power, www.tacomapower.com or 253-502-8363
Snohomish County Public Utility District No. 1, www.snopud.com
Puget Sound Energy, www.pugetsoundenergy.com or 800-562-1482.
U.S. Energy Department, www.eren.doe.gov
Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov
www.homejupiter.com
www.homeenergy.org to order brochures and guides.

P-I SERIES

Wednesday: Power crisis was long in the making

Thursday: Summer blackouts possible

Friday: Energy conservation is the first step